


Worth It

by misterkevo



Category: The OC
Genre: Best Friends, Friendship/Love, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-22
Updated: 2012-10-22
Packaged: 2017-11-16 19:39:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/543117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misterkevo/pseuds/misterkevo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryan watches Seth draw.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Worth It

**Author's Note:**

> Something I wrote in a café once while waiting for a date that wasn't a date.

Ryan likes watching Seth draw.  
  
Not that anyone’s ever allowed to watch Seth draw and, dude, don’t you know how creepy it is to just sit there watching someone, that totally salts their game.  
  
Still, Ryan watches. He pretends he’s reading the paper or engrossed in reruns of “The Valley”, glancing over as inconspicuously as he can manage. It’s the only time Seth is close quiet, hunched over that pad of paper. And even then he’s not truly quiet. Just expressing himself differently, speaking with his pencil instead of his mouth.  
  
It was always the same, or at least near enough. Seth sighs deeply and stares at a blank, empty page. He furrows his brow, deciding what he wants to say with it. He erases hastily and often at first, muttering about field of depth and damn straight lines. Then, after a while, he finds his rhythm. This is Ryan’s second favorite part about watching Seth draw: the grin that spreads slowly across his face when he realizes the picture is coming together. He starts moving faster now, erasing less and only cursing when his hand can’t move as quickly as his brain. Finally, he’ll add the last few lines, shade a bit more there … and there. And he’s done.  
  
He sits back for a minute or two, looking over the picture with his pencil between his teeth. Sooner or later, he’ll decide that he’s satisfied. Then comes Ryan’s favorite part about watching him draw.  
  
Seth stands up and, without taking his eyes off the page, shuffles across the room, drops down next to Ryan and passes the drawing to him.  
  
“What do you think?”  
  
Ryan looks it over. Though he doesn’t know much about art, he can tell that Seth is pretty talented for a high school kid. He wishes he could express himself like Seth does, with words and lines and just a natural Seth-ness. But Ryan is just Ryan, man of two fists and very few words. So he does what Ryan does best.  
  
“Looks great, man,” he says, handing it back with a genuine smile. “Some of your best work yet.”  
  
Seth smiles too, coming pretty close to blushing.  
  
And that moment, seeing how much his opinion means to Seth, makes the long deconstruction of every line on that page worth it every time.


End file.
